


It Was the Sudafed, I Swear

by shieldings



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, F/F, Fluff, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:34:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21785293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shieldings/pseuds/shieldings
Summary: After an encounter with an oddly-themed villain, Terra is laid up in bed.  Raven finds herself playing the reluctant nurse to a patient who wants nothing more than to get on her nerves.
Relationships: Raven/Tara Markov
Comments: 18
Kudos: 52





	It Was the Sudafed, I Swear

**Author's Note:**

> After taking a long sabbatical because of some Big Problems, I'm back. I'm not at the level where I can write good angst again, so I'm just going to practice with fluffy and goofy things for a while.
> 
> Anyway, here's some cute girls!

“You know, looking back, we probably should have guessed by his name,” Beast Boy says.

“His name was ‘The Influenzer,’” Raven snaps, wringing a towel out over the bathroom sink. “How were we supposed to guess that it was spelled like that?” Beast Boy is standing there stupidly, leaning against the doorframe like an idiot. No, that’s not fair. He’s not leaning like an idiot, he’s leaning like a normal person. Raven takes a deep breath.

“He changed my day,” Beast Boy argues. “I’d call him influential.”

“We’re lucky he only hit one of us,” Robin says, suddenly leaning against the other side of the doorframe. “Imagine what would have happened if he’d hit everyone.”

Raven groans and shoves her way past them. Maybe she’s letting herself get too emotional today, but this feels important. She opens the propped door hesitantly.

Terra’s room is messy, but it’s decorated in a very intentional way. She hasn’t been a member of the team for that long, but when she moved in, they all went on a shopping spree at the craft store. The walls are covered in inspirational posters, the dresser is covered with knick-knacks and painted seashells, and the floor is covered in the clothes that Terra refused to put away. The clothes are somehow the most “Terra” thing about the room. Raven hopes that soon, the room will start looking more like its occupant. Terra herself is in the bed at the far end of the room by the curtained window, under a pile of mismatched blankets.

“Are you awake?” Raven asks.

Terra doesn’t respond. Raven comes closer and sees her messy yellow head peeking out from under the blankets. Her face is flushed, and when Raven brushes a hand against her cheek, it’s hot to the touch. Raven lays the towel across Terra’s forehead and leaves as quietly as she can.

\--

An hour later, Raven comes back to change the towel. Terra looks at her blearily.

“It’s Raven,” she says. “My head hurts.”

“It’s Raven,” Raven repeats, deciding that Terra’s odd choice of words is because of the fever. “Do you want ibuprofen?”

“No.”

“We have the gross grape-flavored ones.”

“Yes.”

“You’re such a baby,” Raven says, turning to leave.

“You’re the baby,” Terra says. “Bye, baby.”

Raven ignores that.

\--

“You need to drink something,” Raven says, wiggling the insulated water bottle slightly as though that will make it more appealing.

“M’throat feels all logy.”

“You’re burning up.”

“Let me burrrn.”

“We have to get some water in you, or you’ll just get sicker,” Raven urges. “Do you want something else?”

“Tea.”

“You hate tea. Ask for something you’ll actually drink.”

“Make me tea,” Terra whines pitifully.

“Black or green?”

\--

“We don’t have a bell, so here’s a portable Jeopardy buzzer,” Raven says, placing the it in Terra’s shaky hand. It’s a tube with grips and a little button at the end. “Press it if you need help, okay?”

“Gotcha,” Terra says. She immediately presses it. “Get me one of Robin’s Gray Ghost comics.”

“You don’t have to press it--” it buzzes obnoxiously. “You could just ask--” Buzzz.

Raven hurries out. Robin is lounging on the sofa with an orange soda in one hand and a fashion magazine in the other.

“Robin, where do you keep your comics?” she asks.

“On the shelf above my side of the bed. Why?”

“Terra’s asking me for it,” Raven says. “She, uh… She pressed the buzzer,” she says stupidly.

The buzzer sounds again.

“Can you get that?” she asks, turning to open the door of Robin’s room. He shrugs and stands.

Robin and Starfire’s room is messier than Terra’s, but it looks more like them. There’s an assortment of odd-looking weapons hanging from racks artistically arranged on the walls, along with potted plants and posters from old movies. The bedsheet is printed with bright geometric shapes. Raven manages to find the book after a little bit of searching and climbing on the bed. The mattress has a lot more give than she likes. She can’t imagine how Robin and Starfire sleep on it, but they’re an odd pair in a lot of ways.

Just as she’s about to leave, Robin catches her.

“Sorry,” he says. “She said it had to be you. She wants her CD player. I think it’s in the kitchen.”

Raven is beginning to get a little annoyed with the fetch quests, but she nods anyway and gets the CD player. She rejects Starfire’s offer to try her chili, because she likes being alive.

Terra is sitting up in bed, buzzer in hand. She’s a sight to behold, with a runny nose, a sweaty forehead, and a look of absolute determination.

“I need more tea,” she announces.

“So you did drink it?” Raven asks. She hides that she’s feeling a little relieved.

“I poured it into my puke bucket.” Terra gestures to her puke bucket, which is printed with cute seashells. Luckily, there’s nothing in it but the tea.

“Why would you do that!?” Raven asks, already bending down to pick it up.

“Wanted to,” Terra says. “Get me more tea?”

When Raven brings it to her, it’s in a sippy cup.

\--

The buzzer doesn’t sound for a while, so Raven gets suspicious. She creeps back into Terra’s room and finds her passed out and sweaty again. She gently removes the now-warm cloth from her forehead, wishing she had a fresh one to replace it. Carefully, once she’s certain that Terra is asleep, she lays her hand against her warm cheek.

  
If she didn’t know better, she’d swear that Terra is turning into her palm.

\--

“How are you doing in there?” she calls.

  
“Bath is cold,” comes Terra’s voice, muffled through the door. “Just like you wanted it.”

“Do you feel any better?”

“Rrrnnnrggh.”

“That tells me nothing,” Raven says.

“It’s good.”

Raven winds up sitting on the floor waiting outside the whole time. It’s not weird or anything; she has a book. It’s a good one, too. It’s about geology. 

…Maybe it’s a little weird, considering.

“Uh… Help?” Terra calls. Raven jumps to her feet immediately, ready to ram down the (unlocked) door if need be.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

“Don’t have a towel. Come in?”

“Couldn’t I just hand it to you through the door?” Raven asks. She’s already going through the linen closet, so she has to yell a little.

“Nope. I’ll-- erhg-- fall over. Better come in.”

Raven calls Starfire.

\--

“You’re lucky I convinced Starfire that her chili was too spicy for a sick person,” Raven says.

“Isn’t spicy food supposed to be good when you have a stuffy nose?” Terra asks.

Raven silently dips the spoon in the bowl of condensed chicken soup. She makes intense eye contact. 

“Eat the soup,” she says, lifting the spoon to Terra’s closed lips.

Terra opens her mouth.

\--

The next time Raven comes in, Terra doesn’t talk to her. Raven does her best to get her to speak, but to no avail.

“I’m going to open a window,” Raven says. “It’s stuffy in here.”  
  


Terra blinks at her balefully.

“How about I clean up in here?” Raven asks, despite not wanting to clean up.

Terra scowls.

“I’m going to get you some chili.”

“N-- no,” Terra says in a croaky voice.

“I’ll get you some medicine for your throat,” Raven says, stepping over a sweater on the floor (it looks a lot like one she’s been trying to find for a week, but that’s probably a coincidence) as she shuffles off.

She comes back with the multipurpose cold-flu medicine from the cabinet. Terra takes it gratefully, without complaint. Her throat must really hurt if she’s not trying to tease Raven about it at all.

\--

“Ya know,” Terra says. “You could probably stand to go outside for a couple of hours a day.”

“Thank you,” Raven answers. “That’s really rude.” She’s decided to discount anything Terra says for the next few hours, because it seems that the cold medicine is doing its job.

“I could show you around the great outdoors,” Terra says, rolling under her blankets to face Raven’s chair. “I can dig a really big hole, you should see.”

“I’m sure,” Raven says. She opens her book to the page she’d been reading.

“I could dig a hole, and we could take the dirt from the hole to make a big pile. Then we’d, uh, take turns sitting on it.” Terra snorts, and immediately grabs a tissue from the box by her bed. “I don’t know why that’s funny. I’m so high right now.”

  
“Are you.”

“What if we sat on the dirt pile… together…?”

“I’m reading.”

“What if we--” Terra sneezes before she can finish her sentence. “Anyway, I’m kidding, dumbass”

“Go to sleep.”

  
“But I just woke up!”

“Go to sleep.”

\--

“She’s driving me crazy,” Raven says.

“You could let one of us check up on her instead,” Cyborg says. “You don’t have to go running to her room all the time; nobody else has anything to do, either.”

“No, you don’t have to it,” Raven insists. “She’s so annoying. She told me to go outside.”

“Maybe going outside would be good for you right now. You haven’t left home in…” He checks the watch that’s conveniently built into his non-gun arm. “Well, if the last time you went out was when we fought that Influencer guy at the dollar store…”

“Influenzer,” Raven corrects.

“That would be about three days. Some fresh air might be good for you. And if Terra’s bothering you so much, it would get you away from her.”

“No,” Raven says, already heading toward Terra’s room. “I’ll stay in. I can’t believe I have to do this.”

“But you don’t--” She’s already too far down the hall for him to say anything else.

\--

It’s nighttime. A cold breeze is blowing through the propped window, and the curtain is fluttering wildly. Raven slides it shut. Terra seems to be asleep for real now. This seems more peaceful than the brief naps she’s taken throughout the day, with her eyes closed lightly and her stuffy breathing even.

Secretly, Raven brushes her hair out of her face. Her skin is warm, but not as hot as it had been before. Raven makes sure the door is shut all the way, and she bends down to kiss Terra’s forehead.

Before she can, Terra’s eyes snap open.

“I-- Sorry, I was--” she stammers.

Terra props herself up on her elbows and kisses Raven softly on the lips.

Raven stares speechless for a second.

“I’m really high on cold medicine,” Terra says. “This was an accident.”

  
“You can’t just--” Raven starts, but Terra’s already laid back down and closed her eyes.

“I’m so out of it,” she says. “Looks like I did something weird. Because of the cold medicine.”

Finally, Raven relents. “Okay,” she says. “That was a strange thing to happen. Because of medicine.”

“Right,” Terra says, eyes still shut.

Raven can’t suppress a little smile as she leaves the room.

\--

“Geez,” Robin says. The Titans, including the recently-recovered Terra, are standing in a curious huddle around the couch where Raven has decided to collapse. “Did you even bother to get your shot this year?”

“I was busy,” Raven says. She holds in a sneeze. Her whole body shakes.

“You don’t have to that, you know.”  
  
“I know,” Raven says stuffily.

“I mean, I guess it’s going around,” Cyborg says. “But you’ve been so careful about washing your hands and everything. What do you think did you in?”

  
Terra smirks behind him.


End file.
